28 lines
1.4 KiB
Text
28 lines
1.4 KiB
Text
The Nail
|
||
|
||
A merchant had done good business at the fair; he had sold his wares,
|
||
and lined his money-bags with gold and silver. Then he wanted to travel
|
||
homewards, and be in his own house before nightfall. So he packed his
|
||
trunk with the money on his horse, and rode away.
|
||
|
||
At noon he rested in a town, and when he wanted to go farther the
|
||
stable-boy brought out his horse and said, “A nail is wanting, sir, in
|
||
the shoe of its left hind foot.” “Let it be wanting,” answered the
|
||
merchant; “the shoe will certainly stay on for the six miles I have
|
||
still to go. I am in a hurry.”
|
||
|
||
In the afternoon, when he once more alighted and had his horse fed, the
|
||
stable-boy went into the room to him and said, “Sir, a shoe is missing
|
||
from your horse’s left hind foot. Shall I take him to the blacksmith?”
|
||
“Let it still be wanting,” answered the man; “the horse can very well
|
||
hold out for the couple of miles which remain. I am in haste.”
|
||
|
||
He rode forth, but before long the horse began to limp. It had not
|
||
limped long before it began to stumble, and it had not stumbled long
|
||
before it fell down and broke its leg. The merchant was forced to leave
|
||
the horse where it was, and unbuckle the trunk, take it on his back,
|
||
and go home on foot. And there he did not arrive until quite late at
|
||
night. “And that unlucky nail,” said he to himself, “has caused all
|
||
this disaster.”
|
||
|
||
Hasten slowly.
|